Free Alternative to CrazyBump?

[InsanitySorrow]

I just realised this thread was first posted 6 months ago. Still good to see people giving advice

[Tobi the Dane]

For those of you who do not have Zbrush or Mudbox, but uses 3dsmax, there's a tool called Paint Deformation and it may be useful in order to create a 3d model, that you can later convert to a normal map.

[Sachiel]

There's a tool called insanebump. Sorta like a gimp plugin. Read this: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/v...69973&sid= and if you've got questions about how to use it, just ask.
It's an older thread here but one can never have enough normal maps.

[Dave_91]

Don't worry I'm still looking for an easier way. I actually already downloaded it after checking out your rocks (you mentioned it somewhere in your thread), but I don't usually use Gimp (though I have it installed) so I don't know how to activate the plugin...

[Sachiel]

Hmm, I hope I can explain it here. If you install the file you downloaded it'll actually install a bunch of things, GIMP 2.something, several python script programs, image magick and so on.
It can be accessed then if you start gimp and go to the second tab (in my case it's called "extras" because I'm using the german version, the english should be called "xtns"). There you mark "python-fu" and then "insane". Like this:


This will start insanebump which will bring up an extra menu.
First of all it's important to mention that insanebump has created a folder called insanebumptemp, located in my case under c:\insanebumptemp.
The program will only work on .tga images so what you do is to make a copy of the image you want to normalize as a .tga inside c:\insanebumptemp.

Now in this picture where there is written "castlewall.tga" there will be written "rocks.tga" as a default. You just change the name to the picture you want to normalize and click "ok". I recommend to uncheck "preview" because it's rather annoying.
Upon completion, insanebump will have created a normalmap, a heightmap, a specular map and a diffuse map, the latter being a copy of the file you started with.

The other options are explained briefly with the file you downloaded. I'm not too familiar with them either.

Hope this helps a bit.

[InsanitySorrow]

Edit: Sachiel beat me to it

[Dave_91]

Definitely helps, thanks.

I've got several textures I'm working with that don't have normal maps yet so I'll give it a try on those soon and let you know how they turn out.

NP Insanity. I think the application automatically extract the plugins to their correct folders anyway, it's accessing them and using the plugins where I get a bit mixed up.

[Sachiel]

I just realized that it was wrong what I was saying about the created diffuse texture. If you use the tile opion, remove lighting, etc., it may look a wee bit different than the initial picture.